Is my site map necessary under these circumstances..?

I'd like your opinions (please) on whether what I'm doing is a good,
or bad thing.

I've used a main site map for a while after learning the links it
contains are good for SEO, but more importantly because a site map is
useful for my users. I can see from my logs that it is used quite a
lot.

I recently decided to make each of my main section's landing pages a
mini site map of that relevant section. Eg. A "repairing Widgets"
landing page has links to all of the individual content to do with
repairing widgets of that entire section. This linking is extensive in
that for example, where I have a DIY widget repair page, with say 7
faqs, I have a full link to each of these questions on the Repairing
widget main section page.

The result is that there are 4 (specialised) site maps. Would it still
be a good idea to have a main site map replicating all the mini ones
but all on one page?

My instincts are yes, because some users will prefer to jump to a
standard site map, whereas others will never use it and instead rely
on visiting individual main sections.

My concern is more to do with whether I could be seen as having far
too many internal links, or that they may be seen as duplicate content
because the main site map would just be an amalgamation of the 4 main
section pages.

--

Free washing machine help and advice.

www.washerhelp.co.uk

www.xyzed.co.uk/newsgroups/top-posting.html

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:53:22 +0200, xyZed <xyzed (AT) xyzed (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

The result is that there are 4 (specialised) site maps. Would it still
be a good idea to have a main site map replicating all the mini ones
but all on one page?

If it is used even now, after you have added smaller site maps, leave it
as it is - your site is for users, not bots.

My concern is more to do with whether I could be seen as having far
too many internal links, or that they may be seen as duplicate content
because the main site map would just be an amalgamation of the 4 main
section pages.

Don't worry about duplicate content.

Thing that may be worth investigate is how is PR distributed betwen the
pages - depending on the links structure it may be either distributed
uniformly or concentrated on the landing pages, optimized for your main
keywords. While PR per se is not the most important factor, it's
distribution may change SERPs and in effect your traffic.

Best,
Borek
--
http://www.chembuddy.com
http://www.ph-meter.info

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:53:22 GMT, xyZed <xyzed (AT) xyzed (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

I'd like your opinions (please) on whether what I'm doing is a good,
or bad thing.

I've used a main site map for a while after learning the links it
contains are good for SEO, but more importantly because a site map is
useful for my users. I can see from my logs that it is used quite a
lot.

I recently decided to make each of my main section's landing pages a
mini site map of that relevant section. Eg. A "repairing Widgets"
landing page has links to all of the individual content to do with
repairing widgets of that entire section. This linking is extensive in
that for example, where I have a DIY widget repair page, with say 7
faqs, I have a full link to each of these questions on the Repairing
widget main section page.

The result is that there are 4 (specialised) site maps. Would it still
be a good idea to have a main site map replicating all the mini ones
but all on one page?

My instincts are yes, because some users will prefer to jump to a
standard site map, whereas others will never use it and instead rely
on visiting individual main sections.

I'd say you should follow your instincts. This is your internet as
much as anyone's.

My concern is more to do with whether I could be seen as having far
too many internal links, or that they may be seen as duplicate content
because the main site map would just be an amalgamation of the 4 main
section pages.

Duplicate content is repeated chunks of text, not helpful links. I
don't think you'll have any problems from giving your visitors what
they want.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/hoarding-pagerank.htm
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/erte-prints.htm
http://www.crystal-liaison.com/dreamsicles/index.html

Thing that may be worth investigate is how is PR distributed betwen the
pages - depending on the links structure it may be either distributed
uniformly or concentrated on the landing pages, optimized for your main

Which is always funny thing to investigate :-)


--
best regards
Thomas Schulz
http://www.micro-sys.dk/products/web...words-seo.html
(to the left, the "tree view" column "File Score")

__/ [ Big Bill ] on Tuesday 04 April 2006 11:54 \__

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:53:22 GMT, xyZed <xyzed (AT) xyzed (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

I'd like your opinions (please) on whether what I'm doing is a good,
or bad thing.

I've used a main site map for a while after learning the links it
contains are good for SEO, but more importantly because a site map is
useful for my users. I can see from my logs that it is used quite a
lot.

I recently decided to make each of my main section's landing pages a
mini site map of that relevant section. Eg. A "repairing Widgets"
landing page has links to all of the individual content to do with
repairing widgets of that entire section. This linking is extensive in
that for example, where I have a DIY widget repair page, with say 7
faqs, I have a full link to each of these questions on the Repairing
widget main section page.

The result is that there are 4 (specialised) site maps. Would it still
be a good idea to have a main site map replicating all the mini ones
but all on one page?

My instincts are yes, because some users will prefer to jump to a
standard site map, whereas others will never use it and instead rely
on visiting individual main sections.

I'd say you should follow your instincts. This is your internet as
much as anyone's.

Yes, indeed.

I would say that site maps as such are useful when you have a high numbers of
pages, which the SE needs to cover rapidly or when you have pages whose URL
involves some sort of a search query and thus their existence is implicit.
This can be a valuable SEO tool.

My concern is more to do with whether I could be seen as having far
too many internal links, or that they may be seen as duplicate content
because the main site map would just be an amalgamation of the 4 main
section pages.

Duplicate content is repeated chunks of text, not helpful links. I
don't think you'll have any problems from giving your visitors what
they want.

Avoid duplicates at all cost. They drain ranks or pages without adding
anything. Moreover, they can lead to penalties. There are sites that try to
gain capitalisation over many SERP's using organic content and repeated
(re-used text).

Hope it helps,

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz | The most satisfying eXPerience is UNIX
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
1:25am up 43 days 15:08, 6 users, load average: 0.78, 0.75, 0.77
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms

There is circumstantial evidence that on Fri, 21 Apr 2006 01:32:50
+0100, Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com> wrote
__________________________________________________ _____

› > Duplicate content is repeated chunks of text, not helpful links. I
› > don't think you'll have any problems from giving your visitors what
› > they want.
›
›
› Avoid duplicates at all cost. They drain ranks or pages without adding
› anything. Moreover, they can lead to penalties. There are sites that try to
› gain capitalisation over many SERP's using organic content and repeated
› (re-used text).
›

Cheers. I have many chunks of duplicated links but only in unordered
and ordered lists. The same list of say half a dozen links may be on
the home page, the relevant section and the site map

--

Free washing machine help and advice.

www.washerhelp.co.uk

www.xyzed.co.uk/newsgroups/top-posting.html